EARLY MARRIAGE, CHILD SPOUSES: WHAT ROLES FOR COUNSELLING PSYCHOLOGY

Throughout the world marriage is, regarded as a moment of celebration and a milestone in adult life. Sadly, as this study makes it clear, the practice of early marriage gives no such case for celebration. All too often, the imposition of marriage patter upon a child means that a girl or boy’s childhood is cut short and their fundamental rights are compromised. The participants were two thousand and seventy two early-married young boys and girls randomly drawn from five clans in Uyo Local Government of Akwa-Ibom State. This study looks at the reasons for the perpetuation of early marriage and its possible increase in population under stress. A key factor is poverty with the marriage of children often seen as the strategy for economic survival. Besides, it is, perceived as a way to protect girls and to provide some stability in situation where societies are under extreme pressure; this study also examines the harmful impact of the practice. There are facts on complications and even death in pregnancy and childbirth of wives too young to, safely bear children. Education statistics reveals that the large members of children particularly girls who drop out of school because of early marriage and majority of them, that is, many young married women lament the fact that they cannot even read hence they have to leave school early for marriage. The study adopted a three stage stratified sampling analysis was used. The results show that early marriage at the end leads to domestic child servitude and divorce cumiminigration of young divorced married women, they consequently become sex workers. The result equally identifies the need for counseling intervention to be able to gain the already lost personality realization in early marriage. Based on the finding it was recommended that the federal government of Nigeria should revisit the extents to which counts are implementing the existing relevant marriage laws regularly, infact she should similarly modernize these laws to suit the modern civilization. Besides, her compulsory free education should be extended to all cities and border villages and her law enforcements should be much more vigilant than ever before so as to keep the young ones (especially girls)at school for a better future mission